This is long overdue. A thread devoted totally to the Incredible Hulk! Planet Hulk has rocked the house and any fan of the big green guy should be pleased. For the first time in a while the Hulk is at the forefront of the Marvel U. Greg Pak has really done an excellent job. And it just keeps getting better the recently announced 2007 Marvel Event will be:

WORLD WAR HULK!

Written by Grek Pak
Art by John Romita Jr.

If THAT doesn't have you excited...I am not sure what will.

What do you folks think? Are you liking Pak's Planet Hulk? Feel free to discuss ALL things Hulk.

Dude you aren't reading Hulk!?!?!?! Planet Hulk is one of the coolest storylines EVAR! Its just nonstop cool. I mean Hulk on a planet full of bad ass barbarian aliens...who are just as powerful as him! Cool stuff.

But seriously...anything titled World War Hulk...it just gets me TOO excited.

Let me start off by saying that I love Planet Hulk storyline. I loved the first arc of the story... Hulk as a galdiator was just too cool for me. Of course I am still trying to figure out Silver Surfer being in to places at once... but whatever.

My problem now is that the story is just way, way, way too over the top. Everyone has some deep secret or secret power and all the characters are starting to mirror each other. Oh look Meik is big and strong like the Hulk now.... yeah. I groaned when I first saw that. Oh look she has the "old power." Com'on Greg... does everyone have a "Hulk" like power?

It just seems to me that they stretched this story out way too much. Suddendly everyone has to fight zombies. For no appartant reason... let's through zombies in too the mix. This story is taking to long to tell and is just not that interesting. Maybe it's the fact that we know the story is going to end... and that's what's killing me right now. Comic books have the luxury of telling a monthly story. But when you announce that a story will end on this date, it takes some of the magic away.

But generally I do like the story overall. Maybe cloned Thors will fight the Hulk when he comes back to earth.

I may go looking for this planet Hulk thing next week. ON another note why does Marvel think another "event" is a good idea? Wasn't House of M poor enough? Isn't the current Civil War rapidly spinning in the bowl? Can't they avoid these mega arcs for a couple of years?

Marvel is pleased to present your first look at Incredible Hulks #623, as superstar artist Dale Eaglesham joins New York Times best-selling writer Greg Pak for the epic opening of PLANET SAVAGE! After years on the run, the Hulk and son Skaar have finally found the perfect kingdom call their own – the Savage Land! But this primeval paradise already has a ruler…and Ka-Zar isn’t giving up his homeland without a fight! The Hulk family becomes an invading army this February, only in Incredible Hulks #623!

CBR spoke with Herb Trimpe, the man many consider to be the definitive "Incredible Hulk" artist, about his time working in the Marvel bullpen, the one character he never had a chance to draw and life after comics.

DennisMM wrote:Now I have seen it all. In the new Marvel Previews, they solicit a Hulk poster. The image is blacked out and marked "CLASSIFIED." There isn't even an artist credit. How the FUCK are you supposed to order a poster if you don't know what it looks like? WHY would you order a poster if you don't know what it looks like?

Scott Collura wrote:Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb was wowing the crowd today with new announcements on both the live-action and animated front. Case in point: The Hulk is getting a new animated series. A team show!

It will be called Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. Beautiful, right?

Loeb brought scribe Paul Dini up on stage during the Marvel TV panel this morning, and much like he did last year regarding the Ultimate Spider-Man show, he mock put Dini on the spot as if he was asking him right there and then, for the very first time, to take a job on the show. Last year it was Spidey and this time it was Hulk.

Little was revealed about the series aside from the title, the team roster (Green Hulk, Red Hulk, She-Hulk and A-Bomb), and this promo image:

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Joey Esposito wrote:Jeff Parker's Hulk title has been firing on all cylinders since he took over the book in 2010. As announced earlier this week at San Diego Comic-Con, Parker and artist Patrick Zircher will be sending Red Hulk to the Middle East in a journey of epic proportions. We got a chance to talk with the creators about what's in store for the former General 'Thunderbolt' Ross.

IGN Comics: It'll be interesting to see Red Hulk head to the Middle East with his military background. Will his history as a General play into the events at all, perhaps more than they have up until now?

Jeff Parker: Yes, specifically his history with other military figures. In particular, an old friend has been killed in a conflict which even General Ross doesn't think he should have been involved in. But now Red Hulk will involve himself.

IGN: How will Red Hulk's role as an Avenger be affected by this new development in the Middle East? Will it come to blows between himself and Cap?

Parker: Captain America is far from okay with a Hulk heading to a global hotspot to exact retribution, I'll say that!

IGN: Fortean is an interesting parallel to Ross's old role as the thorn in the side of Bruce Banner. How will Ross and Banner's relationship change as Fortean becomes more of a threat?

Parker: That's a good question. The irony of it all is not lost on Ross. He's starting to realize just what he was putting Banner through all those years. Whether he's willing to admit it to Bruce though, that remains to be seen.

IGN: What can you tell us about Sultan Magus? What's his beef with Red Hulk?

Parker: Red Hulk is just one more outsider involving himself in a world where he doesn't belong, to Dagan Shah, who now has the power that makes him Sultan Magus. But he's far from being a simplistic villain, he makes a special effort to understand his new enemy. He understands what power knowledge is. And he has a lot of power!

Patrick Zircher: I jumped ahead and designed a model sheet for Sultan Magus as Jeff was plotting the stories and, I think, that added momentum to what we're creating. At least I hope it did-- like having the actor locked in and cast for the movie you want to write and shoot.

IGN: Patrick, what are the challenges in drawing a character like Hulk?

Zircher: The Hulk demands space on the page but the pages, like any other books, are there to tell a story. You can almost never get too 'big' when drawing the Hulk. So the challenge is to get across his size and mass and deliver the essentials and subtleties of the story too.

IGN: Obviously big scale action goes hand-in-hand with the Hulk. As a creative team, how do you guys block out the action? Is that left for you to interpret or does Jeff offer a pretty specific vision?

Zircher: The scripts are extremely workable and wonderfully paced. Jeff absolutely knows his stuff. Still, the freedom to manipulate a scene, whether it's action-oriented or conversational, with more or fewer panels is there. Sometimes I use that freedom, sometimes not. But just having it makes a difference. It makes me a happier, more creative guy.

Parker: Patrick knows he can change my scenes to make them have more impact or subtlety, and he's good enough to explain his changes so I can rewrite dialogue to fit it all better! It's very collaborative.

IGN: The info Marvel released calls this Red Hulk's "most personal" journey yet. Can you speak to that at all?

Parker: This is a huge story for us, and it pushes the borders of the Marvel Universe out farther to bring in more of the world. I want to thank Marvel for letting us touch on some subjects others might find too risky- I think it gives us the most story potential.

Though the Red Hulk has been going strong in the Jeff Parker-written Hulk series, the future of the classic green-skinned Hulk has been much murkier in recent months. He's currently transformed into one of the Serpent's Worthy in Fear Itself, and in May news hit that the Incredible Hulks series would end when Greg Pak's run wraps with August's #635.

As you might expect from major recent developments with the character, the new series isn't just Hulk business as usual. The story picks up with Hulk and Bruce Banner physically split into different beings, and the traditional inner conflict between the two becomes a very literal one.

Newsarama talked with Aaron about what attracted him to writing Incredible Hulk, working with Silvestri, and what we might see — and probably won't see — in the near future of the book.

Newsarama: Jason, people might be a bit surprised to hear about you doing Incredible Hulk, given how closely you're involved with the X-Men side of things right now. How did the gig launching the new Incredible Hulk series come about?

Jason Aaron: It's something we've actually been talking about and working on for a while. I've been pretty deep in the X-Men universe for a while now, doing lots of Wolverine and doing more X-Men stuff going forward. I relish the chance to kind of jump into a bit more of the center of the Marvel Universe, and Hulk's the kind of character I like, where it's not a traditional superhero character. He's had a lot of weird, crazy adventures over the years, from going to different dimensions, to other planets, at times he's a hero, at times he's a villain. I jumped at the chance to throw my hat in the ring and try to make my own mark on a character that's been so many crazy things over the years.

Nrama: Yeah, Hulk's a very versatile character in that way, which must be one of the big attractions for a writer. So I'm guessing you're a long-term Hulk fan?

Aaron: Oh, sure, going back to the TV show. I loved the Hulk TV show, I still watch it once in a while. One of the benefits of working from home is that you get to watch daytime television every once in a while.

I've always been a Hulk fan, and like you said, Hulk is a very versatile character. What's cool is that it's not a character you can really pin down. It's not a character with a history you can define in a couple of sentences. Captain America you can boil down, Spider-Man you can boil down — Hulk has been a lot of different things At the end of the day, it always comes back to that dynamic between Banner and this other persona that's inside him, the Hulk. That's what my book will focus on. I'll be trying to kind of turn the tables a little bit and look at that from a different perspective.

Nrama: It sounds like that conflict between Bruce Banner and the Hulk is very literal in your series — they're separate — and you'll be looking at Bruce Banner as the real threat, not the Hulk?

Aaron: Yeah. I did want to flip that dynamic on his head. For so many years, the stories have focused on Banner as a sympathetic character, and Hulk as this monster that he's sort of burdened with. This is very much a Hulk story. Banner is a big part of it, but we're more looking at things from the Hulk's perspective. This is a situation where for years what was an internal tug of war between these two characters is now being played out literally. For whatever reasons, whatever means, they've been split apart, gone their separate ways, but events serve to drag them back together. No matter what they do, no matter how far they go, they still seem to be brought back together, as we move towards a quite literal Banner vs. Hulk confrontation.

Nrama: Does this position Bruce Banner almost as the antagonist in the book, or is not quite that cut and dry?

Aaron: It's not quite that cut and dry. I'm not changing Bruce Banner; I'm not suddenly turning him into Dr. Doom. But certainly he's got some issues that are compounded by the events of this book. The Bruce Banner we pick up with in the pages of Incredible Hulk #1 is in a very different place than the Bruce Banner we saw at the end of Fear Itself.

The events of Fear Itself, and everything the the Hulk goes through in the pages of that, and everything the Hulk's going through in the pages of Greg Pak's last arc on the book, that all kind of feeds into the situation we see Hulk and Banner both in in Incredible Hulk #1. We don't initially know what happened, what was the breaking point, how this happened, why it happened — but as things go along, we see how all this stuff kind of fed into creating this strange, new dynamic for Incredible Hulk.

Nrama: The Hulk has a lot of familiar characters surrounding him, and a lot have been added — or altered — in recent years. This sounds pretty squarely focused on Banner and the Hulk, but will we see any other familiar faces?

Aaron: I did want to do something that would focus more squarely on just Banner and the green-skinned Hulk. The first couple of issues there are references to some of the other Hulks, there's a scene with Betty, but this is the book that kind of comes back to ground and focuses in on getting these two sides of this one persona, Banner and the Hulk. It's not a book where you need to be familiar with the last several years of Hulk continuity. It's a great jumping-on point if you want to check out some Hulk stories, but it's not a reboot. We're not throwing out any of the stuff from recent years, that'll all still come into play. Going forward, I'll be working with Jeff Parker who does Hulk, and we'll be working to create a cohesive Hulk universe. But with this book I wanted to focus in again on the original Hulk, and give people a fresh point to jump on.

Nrama: This sounds like you've got a pretty long-term run in mind.

Aaron: Yeah, what's set in motion in the pages of Incredible Hulk #1 is a dynamic and a new status quo that will play out over the course of several arcs. Certainly this first arc is a direct lead-in to the second arc, which is the quite literal Banner vs. Hulk story.

Nrama: And a very big element of this series is Marc Silvestri on art.

Aaron: Yeah, a guy I've never worked with before, obviously I've known his work for years, been a huge fan. I've been hitting him with a lot of crazy stuff. The first couple issues there are new characters, new threats, a lot of crazy monsters. He's had a lot of big things to draw, and he's just been knocking it out of the park. I've been really thrilled with the stuff I've seen coming in.

Nrama: And it definitely adds to the profile of the book to have an artist like Silvestri on the series, who doesn't take on ongoing series often, and his Marvel work especially has been limited in recent years.

Aaron: It makes it seem a little more special when you've got a guy whose stuff you don't see at Marvel very often.

Nrama: Going back a little bit, you mentioned new characters — is adding to the Hulk mythos one of the priorities of the series?

Aaron: You'll see a new supporting cast emerge. For the most part our cast will focus in pretty squarely on Banner and the Hulk, but outside of that we introduce some new characters, so you can expect some new big, burly creatures for Hulk to punch in the face — all manner of big, burly creatures, I should say. Some new sort-of allies — sometimes allies, sometimes enemies — that will be a part of the Hulk title for the foreseeable future.

Nrama: As a Hulk fan, are there any past runs on the book you're looking to as inspiration, either directly or indirectly?

Aaron: You can't really talk about the Hulk without talking about Peter David's run. I read all that stuff off the rack as it was coming out. I think I first started when [Todd] McFarlane, and then Erik Larsen, were drawing it. Even before that, I loved the short John Byrne run, which I think was the first time we had ever seen Hulk and Banner split apart into two different entities. And then the Bruce Jones run really hooked me on Hulk again. That was a book that really made the Hulk a monster again, it really kind of changed the tone of the book. It wasn't a superhero book, which I liked.

Then you've got to give Greg Pak big credit. He's taken the Hulk to all-new heights over the course of his long run, and done some amazing, character-defining stories.

It's an imposing legacy to follow — as with most Marvel characters, but Hulk in particular. He's one of those characters that are hard to nail down. He's been a lot of different things, he's functioned within a lot of different kinds of stories, from straight superhero stories — obviously, he was one of the original Avengers, and he was a Defender — but also, look at something like "Planet Hulk," and that's a straight sci-fi story. Or the Bruce Jones stuff, which is kind of espionage mixed with an element of horror. That's the kind of stuff I like, and that's what I've tried to do with Wolverine; mix it up and do different tones, and different genres. Some of the initial stuff on Hulk will be more high-octane, action/adventure stuff, but I look forward to mixing up a little bit more.

Nrama: Between the comics, the old show, two movies, cartoons, and more, Hulk is just one of the most recognizable characters in Marvel's stable, so a new Incredible Hulk #1 means a lot.

Aaron: And Hulk is in this little movie that's coming out next year, so that's not going to hurt his profile any, either.

Nrama: Your schedule's pretty full already — coming in the fall you've got Wolverine and the X-Men, along with solo Wolverine, PunisherMAX and of course Scalped. Are you going to have to maybe step away from one of those for Incredible Hulk?

Aaron: I won't be able to continue doing all of those, but it's worked out to where as I was started to kind of segue off of a couple of titles, I'd pick up a couple. So I'm not having to drop anything against my will.

Punisher from the get-go was one big story, and we're moving to the close of that story. I'm still getting to tell the story I wanted to tell there. There will be a few months there later this fall where I think the shelves at the local comic stores will be overflowing with books with my name on it, so people may start to get a little sick of me. I'm really excited about everything I'm doing. I'm getting to do a lot of different kinds of books.

Hulk is very different from Wolverine and the X-Men, which is very different from PunisherMAX, so I'm just happy I'm getting to mix it up a lot like that.

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DennisMM wrote:Reading old Hulk comics. Boy, that Peter David guy could write. I wonder why he left the series? Oh, I remember -- he was fired because he refused to participate in a really pathetic revamping of the character.

John Parker wrote:If you own Volumes 1 through 7 of Marvel's Hulk Visionaries: Peter David series, then it surely is a good week to be you, friend. Get this: there's a Volume 8, and it's out this week. I know, right? Champagne all around! Way to count, Marvel!

Though some of the choices in Marvel's Visionaries line of collections seem a little dubious, Peter David's run on The Incredible Hulk is not. Over the course of his decade-plus tenure on the title, David reshaped the inarticulate slab of the Hulk into an action-packed psychological study; Bruce Banner and his opposite were fully-realized characters locked in a fascinating tug-of-war that dragged the readers through studies of personality disorders and abuse. And it was hilarious.

Before David came on board, the success of The Incredible Hulk television series from 1978-1982 had secured the Hulk's simple, steadfast dichotomy of man and beast in the collective consciousness of a generation, and introduced the world to the talents of the immaculate god-being known in this plane as Lou Ferrigno, who bear-hugged bikers and hillbillies before moving on to the next single mom needing help. But moving to the comics must have been a real mind-hump for crossover readers back in the day, where Hulk battled gods and science freaks while Bruce Banner wrestled for control of his emotions, his destiny, his very soul. Like going from John Denver to King Crimson.

Despite some truly great stories by Bill Mantlo during the height of the character's exposure, by the late eighties, The Incredible Hulk was a title nobody wanted. Poor sales, a moribund conceit, and the dictatorial nature of outgoing editor Jim Shooter soured whatever iconic qualities appealed to both readers and writers. In 1987 new editor Bob Harras offered the reins to David, a member of Marvel's sales team with a few stories under his belt. It's the now-classic situation in comics: a tarnished icon in need of a polish, so under the radar that when creators with fresh ideas come aboard, they're given the freedom to go wild.

David quickly cleared the table with a simple, striking shift of the color wheel, returning the Hulk from nuclear green to his original deathly gray. (Something a lot of folks don't know, when Hulk first appeared, he was gray, then went to green in the very next story. Coloring error or racial commentary? You decide.) Nowadays Hulks change color with alarming frequency, like they're auditioning for every Corps in the emotional spectrum, but back it 1987 it was pretty freaky. Lots of people dismissed it as a gimmick, but the change didn't end at skin tone.

The Gray Hulk was smarter, meaner, more cunning than Green Hulk. No longer a dumbfounded toddler lashing out at the world, he became the sharp-tongued teenager no longer afraid of his dad. Mr. Fixit, as Gray Hulk came to be known, was clever, brash, and always looking for an advantage. Green Hulk was easily manipulated, but Mr. Fixit formed and broke alliances and played enemies against one another. If the Green Hulk was a manifestation of Bruce Banner's rage, Mr. Fixit came from a place even scarier, personifying Banner's ego, his greed, his primal desires for food and sex and conquest. As Banner's Gamma mutation continued to evolve, nighttransformation (again, part of the original Hulk) brought out the nerdy loner's dark opposite to inflict mayhem on anyone or anything that got in his way.

And yet Mr. Fixit was still somehow likeable. Funny, even. Maybe it was his very selfishness that appealed to fans, that fantasy version of themselves that got clever revenge on the mean old world. With a young Todd McFarlane penciling the bulk of the new stories, sales got back to a respectable level and continued climbing all throughout David's run, culminating in Hulk's popularity after his third transformation, with rocketing superstar Dale Keown on art, about ten years into the story.

The history of childhood abuse that Bill Mantlo had introduced for Banner, David made clear and integral. Bruce's father had abused him and his mother, eventually killing her, planting the hidden-away pocket of rage that would become the Hulk. As David and his artists wound their way through throwbacks to horror comic origins, emotional drama, and nuclear allegory, the guiding concept was revealed: Banner had serious emotional problems and an intense personality disorder, and like all of us, he had to deal with it.

The Hulk that emerged in the final years of David's story blended the best elements of each personality. Banner's intellect combined with the Green Hulk's power and Mr. Fixit's assertiveness. A man transformed, an adult who been to his darkest places and embraced them, and returned, at last, complete.

After a few years of New Hulk, though, Marvel brass pushed David to return to the Savage Hulk. David, who wasn't done telling stories of the complete Hulk, held his ground and was summarily cut from the title. They did, however, grant him a farewell story. The Incredible Hulk 467, beautifully illustrated by Adam Kubert, is probably still the best single issue David has written. Fueled by the emotions of his divorce, he wrote a future Rick Jones discussing what had happened to Bruce Banner after the death of Betty Ross. It's likely the definitive statement on the character.

If you love hilarious, action-packed, emotional stories of internal conflict in the nuclear age, Peter David's tremendous run on Hulk is required reading. If you're already taking out your issues on the world around you while hearing that haunting end-credits music in your head, don't worry about it.

THIS IS IT! The finale of Marvel scribe extraordinaire Greg Pak’s heralded Hulk run, and he’s not leaving without a fight! Or in this case, an uncompromising beatdown unlike anything the Hulk has ever endured. All the stops have been pulled out and nothing is off the table in this crushingly climactic issue brought to life by acclaimed artist Paul Pelletier, a must-read event for any and all fans of the Green Goliath in this awesome, extra-large final issue!

Alex Zalben wrote:As we wrap up our Post-Game chats on X-Men: Schism, we’re about to embark on a whole new journey: to Arabia, with writer Jeff Parker, and none other than the big Red Hulk. Starting in issue #42 of the series, the General Ross Hulk will be off to the Middle East, going AWOL to solve the mystery of a former comrade in arms possible murder… And tangling with The Secret Avengers, and a new villain – Sultan Magus – while he does.

Way back when this storyline was announced at San Diego Comic-Con, we chatted with Parker about the title, and then got a chance to read an “ashcan” – basically an entire issue, printed on newsprint in black and white – of the first issue of the Hulk of Arabia storyline… And it did not disappoint. A great new entry point for readers, an exciting new villain, and gorgeous pencils from Patrick Zircher make this a comic you won’t want to miss.

To help build the anticipation for the book, we chatted once again with Parker about how the fallout from the previous storyline plays into this new arc, where its going, and why its bigger than anything they’ve done before. After you’re done reading this, check back next week, when we have the first Post-Game interview with Parker about the storyline, and then just two short weeks later for a chat on part two! Okay, enough yapping:

MTV Geek: Okay, to kick this off… Where is Ross when we’re heading into the Hulk of Arabia storyline? Emotionally, and physically?

Jeff Parker: Emotionally, he's upset. He finds out during an encounter with his military nemesis General Fortean that an old friend of his was just killed.

Physically, not bad! Because he tricked the being Zero/One into removing his cerebral mines, he can turn human again when he wants.

Geek: Not to spoil too much from the last issue, but in order to defeat Omegex, he literally had to embrace his humanity – is this something we’ll see put to the test in HoA?

JP: Yes- the transformation process helps him heal, and he'll need that for all the pain coming!

Geek: On a greater scale, as well as finding acceptance with himself, Rulk is a member of the Avengers, he’s proved his heroism in Fear Itself… Going into this, has he gotten too cushy and safe? Are we going to see the return of the rogue Red Hulk of yore?

JP: He's not as drunk with power as he was when he first became Red Hulk, but he does feel he should be able to put it to use even on the world stage like he is in this story. Even if that may cause an international incident. Which is why the Secret Avengers come roaring in!

Geek: Between Zero/One, Black Fog, and Sultan Magus, you seem to be really building an international team of villains for Rulk to face – what draws you to that aspect, in particular? Or were there just too many villains from Boston? [NOTE: I can’t think of any off hand, but I’m sure they’re all from there.]

JP: Something about the Red Hulk character works globally to me. I want him to go all over the world- I get tired of everything happening in New York. You can get in majestic fights in China, Russia, Africa... it just makes the action even bigger. And I think the artists enjoy having different locales and people to draw.

Geek: Lastly, what makes this storyline bigger than any that’s come before? You guys clearly are giving it a big push, so there's that; but the Omegex storyline was pretty huge, too….

JP: Like much of the 1960s Marvel stories, this one mirrors what's going on in the greater world a bit more. It's a dynamic time in the Arab countries and even though we touch on that with the fantastic elements that comes with superhero comics, it brings back some energy from the real world. And The Sultan Magus is a foil more than a villain, he's a more complex adversary that can stake out a section of the Marvel universe the way characters like Dr. Doom have- lots of story potential.

Hulk #42, which kicks off the Hulk of Arabia storyline, hits comic book stands on October 5th, 2011. Be sure to check back here the next day for our Post-Game with Parker!

Brian Truitt wrote:In the legend of Dr. Bruce Banner and his massively muscular green alter ego, the Hulk, it's the latter who always has been branded the monster. But what if the monster was actually the man?

Jason Aaron explores this more psychological take on the famous characters as the writer of the relaunched Marvel Comics series The Incredible Hulk, taking over from Greg Pak's run that recently ended at issue 635.

During the event series Fear Itself, Hulk was possessed by the power of Nul, Breaker of Worlds, thanks to a mystical hammer and laid waste to a large piece of the world. In the final issue, Hulk is freed of Nul, but he engineers a way to also free himself of Banner once and for all, separating them into different entities and leaving the scientist flabbergasted.

In The Incredible Hulk issue 1, in comic shops today and illustrated by iconic artist Marc Silvestri, Hulk is off on his own, living in a subterranean world with Moloids and seemingly content — when he has to down a vicious monster, he seems even a little sympathetic in victory. Meanwhile, Banner is off in a jungle experimenting on animals, seeking out Hulk and looking a bit south of sanity.

Aaron promises lots of insightful bits into Hulk and Banner, balanced with Hulk fighting giant green sharks in the second issue as well as crazy, hulked-out beast men.

"To me, Hulk functions at its best when it's not a superhero story," the writer explains. "Banner has always felt that the Hulk is the monster inside him and the Hulk is the thing that's ruined his life and held him back. They've made their peace at times, but still overall he seems to look at the Hulk as his burden.

"We see what happens when he's relieved of that burden: Does he become a better man? What we see initially, no."

One of Banner's major hang-ups is that Hulk is the only significant thing he has ever accomplished in his life — and even that was by accident. "All he ever did was build a gamma bomb and then happen to get caught in the explosion," Aaron says. "He becomes obsessed with continuing his work and takes that to extreme lengths and becomes a Marvel Universe version of Dr. Moreau."

Another annoyance for him: Practically everyone Banner has ever known is now a Hulk except for him. His cousin Jennifer has long been She-Hulk after a blood transfusion from Banner to save her life. But also, his longtime nemesis Thunderbolt Ross is Red Hulk (the star of writer Jeff Parker's current Hulk series), Banner's ex-wife Betty Ross is Red She-Hulk (who shows up briefly in Aaron's second issue) and former sidekick Rick Jones— whom Banner saved back in the day during the accident that turned him green in the first place — is now the gamma-powered A-Bomb.

"All this is just fueling his rage to, what, change himself for the better or to take all the Hulks away? We don't really know at first," Aaron says. "He just seems to be angry at everyone, including himself."

At the same time, Hulk has always wanted to be left alone and have his shot at being happy, although he remains wary and waits for "that knock on the door, which of course eventually comes," Aaron says. "It's just not the sort of knock he was expecting."

There is also the mystery of how Banner and Hulk were split apart. That's a big question that will be a slow burn in answering how it happened and who's responsible.

Those gaps will be filled in during the series while the first two arcs will focus on the relationship between the main characters — the second is called "The Hulk vs. Banner," "so you know exactly what you're going to get there," says Aaron, who credits Peter David's 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk beginning in 1987 as defining the pair for him.

So far, Aaron has enjoyed flipping the dynamic of the characters and portraying the Hulk as more heroic than he has been.

"It's kind of Apocalypse Now with the Hulk as Martin Sheen and Bruce Banner as Marlon Brando," he says. "It's been fun to try to do a different sort of Hulk story but one that's still got all the same trappings fans have come to enjoy about The Incredible Hulk."

Steve Sunu wrote:The next announcement had to do with Jason Aaron's "Incredible Hulk" storyline, "Stay Angry," involving the Punisher. Jeff Parker's "Hulk" will deal with the Mayan prophecy of world Armageddon, bringing Red Hulk together with Machine Man and Alpha Flight in a story illustrated by Dale Eaglesham. "Dale draws some of the best characters you'll ever see that design on the border of the page," said Singh. "Kudos to Jeph Loeb who launched this series years ago. We're past issue 50 and that's incredible

Eric Goldman wrote:In the wake of Buffy/Angel creator Joss Whedon writing and directing The Avengers movie, one of his former Vampire Slayers has been tapped to voice a major Marvel hero.

Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse) will be voicing She-Hulk on the upcoming animated series, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. Adrian Pasdar revealed the news to me today, when we spoke about his recurring role on the new Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, where he voices Iron Man. (Look for that full interview later this week.)

Pasdar, who first voiced Tony Stark in the Marvel Anime: Iron Man series, revealed he would also be guest starring as Iron Man on the new Hulk series. He noted that he'd just been doing voice work on Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. the other day with Eliza Dushku, adding, "She does She-Hulk."

The Heroes alum said with a laugh, "The funny thing is if people were to actually visit these animation rooms and see the guys and the girls that are doing it, with the exception of Eliza, who's a stunning beauty, the rest of us, we don't look quite as good as the animation characters they draw for us. It's really quite funny. You see these middle aged guys having fun, playing these younger whippersnappers. It's quite amusing to look around the room. "

Pasdar didn't reveal any story details about his Hulk guest appearance, but remarked, "Iron Man visits Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and that was really fun, working with those guys. So yeah, I'm getting around!"

I should note that Disney XD could not confirm Pasdar's statements about he and Duskhu's roles on Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., which still has no specific premiere date announced.

At San Diego Comic-Con last summer, Marvel TV Head Jeph Loeb said that Agents of S.M.A.S.H. would feature Hulk, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, Skaar and A-Bomb, and revealed that Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series, Arkham City, Ultimate Spider-Man) was working on the series. In the fall, at New York Comic-Con Leob also said that She-Hulk has some of the best lines in the show.

Alex Dueben wrote:You took over penciling "The Incredible Hulk" from Herb Trimpe, I believe.

Yeah. Herb went onto something else and they called me and asked if I wanted to take over the Hulk. That was about hundred fifty years ago. [Laughs] It seems like a hundred-fifty years ago. Anyway, when they called and asked me to do it, I jumped at the chance. The Hulk is my all-time favorite character. I think I did it for almost ten years. It was a labor of love for me. I just loved the character and had the opportunity to work with some wonderful writers on it, too.

He's so different. He's not your normal superhero running around in spandex saving the world every month. He was such a fascinating character and the possibilities for the character were limitless as far as I was concerned. It was always an adventure. Every book I did, I approached it like I was working on it for the first time. That was one of the blessings of being able to work with such good writers when I was doing the Hulk. I was working with good writers on other books, too, but I was particularly blessed with that book. The character was so unique and I really felt that the possibilities for that character were truly limitless. He was a lot of fun to draw because he was ticked off all the time. [Laughs] You could really vent with this guy when you put pencil to paper.

There was a great run of writers working on the book in the course of that decade.

When I started, Len Wein was the writer, if I remember correctly, and again, I'm trusting a very faulty memory. Len and I had a really good relationship and we were worked very well together.

Roger Stern wrote it for a while. Bill Mantlo worked on it for a long time.

I ended my run on the Hulk when Bill was writing it. There were several in-between, and they're probably going to get really ticked off at me for not remembering who they were. I ask for their forgiveness.

You also drew the Hulk in "The Defenders" for a few years. Like "The Incredible Hulk," that was a book that was a little different.

They were supposed to be a very loosely-knit group of reluctant characters who really didn't want to be there, but circumstances brought them together every month. It was unique in that fashion, I suppose. Not like the Avengers, who were official members of this group. The Defenders really wanted to be elsewhere, but circumstances always brought them together.

Funny story about Len Wein -- I started "Hulk" with Len. He had a habit of being late with the plots, so he would call me on the phone and he would relate the plot to me over the phone. Of course he had this sketch in his mind of what he wanted to do with the story, but occasionally -- and this didn't happen too often, because he would usually know what he wanted -- he would reach a little bit of a snag in the story and he and I would kick it back and forth. I would say, well, how about this, and he would say, let's go that way and so on and so forth. When I said that we had a great relationship and the chemistry between us was really good, this is what I was talking about. He communicated the plots to me over the phone, and I don't recall that ever happening with any other writer. It may have, but I don't recall it. Len worked that way with me all the time and it worked out to be a pretty successful run that he and I had. We had a lot of fun together.

“The Avengers” is a monster smash and one key reason is the smashing monster in the middle of all the action.

It’s been an incredible month for the Marvel Studios film that is now No. 4 on the list of highest-grossing films of all time (the worldwide total is now north of $1.3 billion) and will soon pass “The Dark Knight” as the biggest comic book adaptation film in U.S. history.

The big green success of “The Avengers” comes at a golden moment: This month marks the 50th anniversary of the character’s first appearance in the pages of Marvel Comics. To learn more about the Hulk’s history, flip through the photo gallery above but be sure to click the “CAPTIONS ON” option.

The Hulk in this film (as realized by actor Mark Ruffalo, writer-director Joss Whedon and the film’s visual effects team) is the one that fans always wanted but eventually stopped expecting after two solo films that seemed to alternate between mopey and mundane. This Hulk is fearsome and funny, a lime-colored natural disaster who makes gods nervous.

Will the success of Whedon’s take get the Hulk another solo film, maybe by 2015? Don’t dismiss that idea too quickly — remember that Disney and Marvel make decisions based on marketplace upside and for decades the Hulk has been second only to Spider-Man when it comes to worldwide consumer recognition of Marvel characters. And why not? He’s got mad skills.